My new elcheapo tapping head arrived yesterday. As is often the case
with Chinese tools the instructions appeared to be written by somebody
who was afraid to use much paper and suffered from learning English
recently as a second language from somebody who spoke English as a
second language.

However, I muddled through and determined that the "torque" settings
they referred to function as a friction slip clutch much like the drag
on a fishing reel. My new spiral flute taps to go with it have not
arrived yet, but I experimented anyway. Some MDF seemed like a suitable
test subject since all I have laying around are hand taps. It worked
pretty good. I set it for light torque, and just lifted the head to
reverse and clear chips when it slipped. It worked. Well, it worked
after I tightened up the collet closer, and it quit spinning around the
tap. LOL.

After doing 8 holes or so in the sample piece of MDF I got ballsy. I
broke out a scrap piece of aluminum and drilled some holes. Stop that!
I can see you cringing. I left the torque setting moderately light
and tapped the aluminum the same way I tapped the MDF. When the chips
packed up it would slip the clutch. I just lifted the head to reverse
and blew the chips out.

No its not the ideal way to tap a work piece, but it allowed me to play
with my new toy, and its still a lot faster than hand tapping. (lots of
mineral oil on the aluminum)

Its a lot better than I expected at a cost of only a yard and a half
brand new including freight.

On 5/10/2011 5:23 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
My new elcheapo tapping head arrived yesterday. As is often the case
with Chinese tools the instructions appeared to be written by somebody
who was afraid to use much paper and suffered from learning English
recently as a second language from somebody who spoke English as a
second language.

However, I muddled through and determined that the "torque" settings
they referred to function as a friction slip clutch much like the drag
on a fishing reel. My new spiral flute taps to go with it have not
arrived yet, but I experimented anyway. Some MDF seemed like a suitable
test subject since all I have laying around are hand taps. It worked
pretty good. I set it for light torque, and just lifted the head to
reverse and clear chips when it slipped. It worked. Well, it worked
after I tightened up the collet closer, and it quit spinning around the
tap. LOL.

After doing 8 holes or so in the sample piece of MDF I got ballsy. I
broke out a scrap piece of aluminum and drilled some holes. Stop that! I
can see you cringing. I left the torque setting moderately light and
tapped the aluminum the same way I tapped the MDF. When the chips packed
up it would slip the clutch. I just lifted the head to reverse and blew
the chips out.

No its not the ideal way to tap a work piece, but it allowed me to play
with my new toy, and its still a lot faster than hand tapping. (lots of
mineral oil on the aluminum)

Its a lot better than I expected at a cost of only a yard and a half
brand new including freight.


Oh, Wow! I checked tracking on one of my packs of spiral flute taps a
few minutes ago, and it showed it had just been delivered. I unlocked
the drop box and rushed back to tap some real holes in a real work
piece. Oh, Wow! Zip! Zip! Zip! Zip!

I did notice one thing though that kind of concerns me. I got some
chips, but mostly I got some long fine wire like chips off of each of
the three flutes. On the first two holes I stopped the drill press to
clean them off, but after the third one I just tapped the next hole
without cleaning the long wires off. It tapped just fine, but I wonder
if those could cause some problems if I tried to tap say 10 or 20 or 50
holes without stopping to clean those off the tap.

The holes look beautiful by the way, but I did prep them just like as if
I was going to hand tap them with a slight chamfer by hand and a shot of
oil.

I've got new tool glow. It really works. Now to make myself some of
those fixture plates that I refused to buy before. LOL.

On May 10, 8:23*pm, Bob La Londe wrote:
My new elcheapo tapping head arrived yesterday.


Its a lot better than I expected at a cost of only a yard and a half
brand new including freight.

Where did you get your new toy? Inquiring minds want to know.

Dan

On 2011-05-11, Bob La Londe wrote:
My new elcheapo tapping head arrived yesterday. As is often the case
with Chinese tools the instructions appeared to be written by somebody
who was afraid to use much paper and suffered from learning English
recently as a second language from somebody who spoke English as a
second language.

Common, unfortunately.

However, I muddled through and determined that the "torque" settings
they referred to function as a friction slip clutch much like the drag
on a fishing reel. My new spiral flute taps to go with it have not
arrived yet, but I experimented anyway. Some MDF seemed like a suitable
test subject since all I have laying around are hand taps. It worked
pretty good. I set it for light torque, and just lifted the head to
reverse and clear chips when it slipped. It worked. Well, it worked
after I tightened up the collet closer, and it quit spinning around the
tap. LOL.

Yes -- if they have done a clone of the Jacobs tap chuck, there
are two things to tighten.

First -- the pair of plates which clamp down on the square end
of the tap to prevent spinning.

Second -- the RubberFlex collet to hold it concentric and
parallel to the axis.

Botb need to be tightened. with the RubberFlex only loosely
tightened at first, then the clamp plates, then a firm tightening of the
RubberFlex collet to keep the pull from working the tap out of the
collet.

After doing 8 holes or so in the sample piece of MDF I got ballsy. I
broke out a scrap piece of aluminum and drilled some holes. Stop that!
I can see you cringing. I left the torque setting moderately light
and tapped the aluminum the same way I tapped the MDF. When the chips
packed up it would slip the clutch. I just lifted the head to reverse
and blew the chips out.

O.K. With the clutch set loose enough, that could work -- but
remember that the clutch is designed only to tell you when the taps are
getting dull, so you may be wearing them out more quickly doing this.

You don't have any spiral point (gun) taps on hand? I tend to
prefer those even for hand tapping.

No its not the ideal way to tap a work piece, but it allowed me to play
with my new toy, and its still a lot faster than hand tapping. (lots of
mineral oil on the aluminum)

Understood -- got to play.

Its a lot better than I expected at a cost of only a yard and a half
brand new including freight.

This is the second time you have mentioned "a yard and a half"
as a price. Please -- what does that translate into? Given the new
price of the TapMatic heads, I would guess that this may be $150.00, not
$15.00 or $1.50. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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On 5/10/2011 7:08 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2011-05-11, Bob La wrote:
My new elcheapo tapping head arrived yesterday. As is often the case
with Chinese tools the instructions appeared to be written by somebody
who was afraid to use much paper and suffered from learning English
recently as a second language from somebody who spoke English as a
second language.

Common, unfortunately.

However, I muddled through and determined that the "torque" settings
they referred to function as a friction slip clutch much like the drag
on a fishing reel. My new spiral flute taps to go with it have not
arrived yet, but I experimented anyway. Some MDF seemed like a suitable
test subject since all I have laying around are hand taps. It worked
pretty good. I set it for light torque, and just lifted the head to
reverse and clear chips when it slipped. It worked. Well, it worked
after I tightened up the collet closer, and it quit spinning around the
tap. LOL.

Yes -- if they have done a clone of the Jacobs tap chuck, there
are two things to tighten.

First -- the pair of plates which clamp down on the square end
of the tap to prevent spinning.

Second -- the RubberFlex collet to hold it concentric and
parallel to the axis.


I'll have to look at it more carefully. It looked to me like just the
rubber flex collet tightens on the tap. I'll pull the collet and closer
off and shine a light down it and see.


Botb need to be tightened. with the RubberFlex only loosely
tightened at first, then the clamp plates, then a firm tightening of the
RubberFlex collet to keep the pull from working the tap out of the
collet.

After doing 8 holes or so in the sample piece of MDF I got ballsy. I
broke out a scrap piece of aluminum and drilled some holes. Stop that!
I can see you cringing. I left the torque setting moderately light
and tapped the aluminum the same way I tapped the MDF. When the chips
packed up it would slip the clutch. I just lifted the head to reverse
and blew the chips out.

O.K. With the clutch set loose enough, that could work -- but
remember that the clutch is designed only to tell you when the taps are
getting dull, so you may be wearing them out more quickly doing this.

You don't have any spiral point (gun) taps on hand? I tend to
prefer those even for hand tapping.


Heck, until a few months ago I never even knew what they were for. Had
some come in this afternoon though.


No its not the ideal way to tap a work piece, but it allowed me to play
with my new toy, and its still a lot faster than hand tapping. (lots of
mineral oil on the aluminum)

Understood -- got to play.

Got a few of my spiral flute taps later today and and they are awesome
with this machine. If there weren't already dozens of tapping head
videos on You Tube I would be tempted to post one.


Its a lot better than I expected at a cost of only a yard and a half
brand new including freight.

This is the second time you have mentioned "a yard and a half"
as a price.

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill


Please -- what does that translate into? Given the new
price of the TapMatic heads, I would guess that this may be $150.00, not
$15.00 or $1.50. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

On 2011-05-11, Bob La Londe wrote:
On 5/10/2011 5:23 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
My new elcheapo tapping head arrived yesterday. As is often the case
with Chinese tools the instructions appeared to be written by somebody

[ ... ]

Oh, Wow! I checked tracking on one of my packs of spiral flute taps a
few minutes ago, and it showed it had just been delivered. I unlocked
the drop box and rushed back to tap some real holes in a real work
piece. Oh, Wow! Zip! Zip! Zip! Zip!

:-)

I did notice one thing though that kind of concerns me. I got some
chips, but mostly I got some long fine wire like chips off of each of
the three flutes. On the first two holes I stopped the drill press to
clean them off, but after the third one I just tapped the next hole
without cleaning the long wires off. It tapped just fine, but I wonder
if those could cause some problems if I tried to tap say 10 or 20 or 50
holes without stopping to clean those off the tap.

Probably not a problem until they threaten to tangle up with
something stationary.

The holes look beautiful by the way, but I did prep them just like as if
I was going to hand tap them with a slight chamfer by hand and a shot of
oil.

The next step -- for holes which you expect to do a lot of -- is
to get the combination drill and spiral flute tap, so you can do it all
in a single pass. (Well ... no chamfer ... but. :-) I think that there
is even a spring-loaded tool designed to go on a drill bit which rides
in the flutes and chamfers the hole at the end of travel. Maybe one of
these would chamfer your tapped hole for you with everything else.

I've got new tool glow. It really works. Now to make myself some of
those fixture plates that I refused to buy before. LOL.

That's what the new tool glow will do to you. ;-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 2011-05-11, Bob La Londe wrote:
On 5/10/2011 7:08 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:

[ ... ]

Yes -- if they have done a clone of the Jacobs tap chuck, there
are two things to tighten.

First -- the pair of plates which clamp down on the square end
of the tap to prevent spinning.

Second -- the RubberFlex collet to hold it concentric and
parallel to the axis.


I'll have to look at it more carefully. It looked to me like just the
rubber flex collet tightens on the tap. I'll pull the collet and closer
off and shine a light down it and see.

The plates are adjusted by an Allen screw behind the bulk of the
collet closing cone. It is double threaded -- left hand on one end,
right hand on the other end, so the plates separate or close
symmetrically. The plates and screw are sort of rattle lose in there
until you clamp down on the end of the tap.

[ ... ]

You don't have any spiral point (gun) taps on hand? I tend to
prefer those even for hand tapping.


Heck, until a few months ago I never even knew what they were for. Had
some come in this afternoon though.

The spiral flute were the ones you got, I thought -- not the
spiral points. (Unless you got some of each at the same time.) The
spiral points are better for through holes, the spiral flute for blind
holes -- with the exception of the combined drill and tap which I just
mentioned in another part of this "thread", where the spiral tap flutes
are the same spiral as the drill part (of course), and with the drill
there too, you can't play the game of blind holes. :-) For the 1/4-20
drill tap, there is enough thread to drill and tap through 1/2" plate.

[ ... ]

Its a lot better than I expected at a cost of only a yard and a half
brand new including freight.

This is the second time you have mentioned "a yard and a half"
as a price.

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill

O.K. I was familiar with "Fin" and "Sawbuck", and "Single" is
fairly self-evident, but the others were unfamiliar. Hmm ... from
Loan-sharking? Betting?

Thanks,
DoN.

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--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On May 10, 9:38*pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill

* * * * O.K. *I was familiar with "Fin" and "Sawbuck", and "Single" is
fairly self-evident, but the others were unfamiliar. *Hmm ... from
Loan-sharking? *Betting?


Ummm.. something like that.

Life in the 10s. Look on the computer to see if you have
mail.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...


Oh, Wow! I checked tracking on one of my packs of spiral
flute taps a
few minutes ago, and it showed it had just been delivered.
I unlocked
the drop box and rushed back to tap some real holes in a
real work
piece. Oh, Wow! Zip! Zip! Zip! Zip!

On Tue, 10 May 2011 22:14:30 -0700 (PDT), Bob La Londe
wrote:

On May 10, 9:38Â*pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill

Â* Â* Â* Â* O.K. Â*I was familiar with "Fin" and "Sawbuck", and "Single" is
fairly self-evident, but the others were unfamiliar. Â*Hmm ... from
Loan-sharking? Â*Betting?


Ummm.. something like that.

White slavery?

--
Woe be to him that reads but one book.
-- George Herbert

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
On 5/10/2011 5:23 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
My new elcheapo tapping head arrived yesterday. As is often the case
with Chinese tools the instructions appeared to be written by somebody
who was afraid to use much paper and suffered from learning English
recently as a second language from somebody who spoke English as a
second language.

However, I muddled through and determined that the "torque" settings
they referred to function as a friction slip clutch much like the drag
on a fishing reel. My new spiral flute taps to go with it have not
arrived yet, but I experimented anyway. Some MDF seemed like a suitable
test subject since all I have laying around are hand taps. It worked
pretty good. I set it for light torque, and just lifted the head to
reverse and clear chips when it slipped. It worked. Well, it worked
after I tightened up the collet closer, and it quit spinning around the
tap. LOL.

After doing 8 holes or so in the sample piece of MDF I got ballsy. I
broke out a scrap piece of aluminum and drilled some holes. Stop that! I
can see you cringing. I left the torque setting moderately light and
tapped the aluminum the same way I tapped the MDF. When the chips packed
up it would slip the clutch. I just lifted the head to reverse and blew
the chips out.

No its not the ideal way to tap a work piece, but it allowed me to play
with my new toy, and its still a lot faster than hand tapping. (lots of
mineral oil on the aluminum)

Its a lot better than I expected at a cost of only a yard and a half
brand new including freight.


Oh, Wow! I checked tracking on one of my packs of spiral flute taps a few
minutes ago, and it showed it had just been delivered. I unlocked the
drop box and rushed back to tap some real holes in a real work piece. Oh,
Wow! Zip! Zip! Zip! Zip!

I did notice one thing though that kind of concerns me. I got some chips,
but mostly I got some long fine wire like chips off of each of the three
flutes. On the first two holes I stopped the drill press to clean them
off, but after the third one I just tapped the next hole without cleaning
the long wires off. It tapped just fine, but I wonder if those could
cause some problems if I tried to tap say 10 or 20 or 50 holes without
stopping to clean those off the tap.

The holes look beautiful by the way, but I did prep them just like as if I
was going to hand tap them with a slight chamfer by hand and a shot of
oil.

I've got new tool glow. It really works. Now to make myself some of
those fixture plates that I refused to buy before. LOL.





Spiral flute taps are specifically for blind hole tapping. The spiral
flutes shoot the chips up instead of down. They work great for this, but be
sure to set the stop so that you don't bottom them out in the hole. Clutch
or not, they will snap right off.

For through holes or holes that are a lot deeper than the threaded portion,
you should use gun taps.
They are much more robust and much cheaper.

Paul K. Dickman

On 05/10/2011 08:39 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:


I did notice one thing though that kind of concerns me. I got some
chips, but mostly I got some long fine wire like chips off of each of
the three flutes. On the first two holes I stopped the drill press to
clean them off, but after the third one I just tapped the next hole
without cleaning the long wires off. It tapped just fine, but I wonder
if those could cause some problems if I tried to tap say 10 or 20 or 50
holes without stopping to clean those off the tap.
That is the same chip I get with them. I get worried about the mess it
would make if it broke a tap off in the workpiece, so I generally stand
there removing the chips with a toothbrush and applying a new bit of
tapping fluid. Doing this on a CNC mill with combined drill-taps, it
can go through a BUNCH of holes almost faster than you can keep up with it.

Jon

On Wed, 11 May 2011 05:33:52 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 22:14:30 -0700 (PDT), Bob La Londe
wrote:

On May 10, 9:38*pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill

* * * * O.K. *I was familiar with "Fin" and "Sawbuck", and "Single" is
fairly self-evident, but the others were unfamiliar. *Hmm ... from
Loan-sharking? *Betting?


Ummm.. something like that.

White slavery?

Must be a local tradition. The term around here for a 100 is a Ben or
a Benjamin.

I sell shade trees for cash. Every now and then some fella thinks a
check is the same thing. I remind them that I'm looking for pictures
of dead presidents.

Karl

"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 11 May 2011 05:33:52 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 22:14:30 -0700 (PDT), Bob La Londe
wrote:

On May 10, 9:38 pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill

O.K. I was familiar with "Fin" and "Sawbuck", and "Single" is
fairly self-evident, but the others were unfamiliar. Hmm ... from
Loan-sharking? Betting?


Ummm.. something like that.

White slavery?

Must be a local tradition. The term around here for a 100 is a Ben or
a Benjamin.

Nope. Its definitely a trade thing. I've heard it all over the country.

I sell shade trees for cash. Every now and then some fella thinks a
check is the same thing. I remind them that I'm looking for pictures
of dead presidents.

So you take cash, but don't take hundreds then?

On Fri, 13 May 2011 08:13:15 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:

On Wed, 11 May 2011 05:33:52 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 22:14:30 -0700 (PDT), Bob La Londe
wrote:

On May 10, 9:38Â*pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill

Â* Â* Â* Â* O.K. Â*I was familiar with "Fin" and "Sawbuck", and "Single" is
fairly self-evident, but the others were unfamiliar. Â*Hmm ... from
Loan-sharking? Â*Betting?


Ummm.. something like that.

White slavery?

Must be a local tradition. The term around here for a 100 is a Ben or
a Benjamin.

I sell shade trees for cash. Every now and then some fella thinks a
check is the same thing. I remind them that I'm looking for pictures
of dead presidents.

I'd never heard the term "shade tree" used in that fashion. A shade
tree mechanic was one who worked under a tree (or at your house)
because he didn't have a place of business.

Locally, the terms "Benji" or "C-note" is used for hunnerts. I
learned about them from some ex friends who were using them to vacuum
white powders up their noses back in my last life. I'm glad I was
never rich enough for any of that crap.

Now, will everyone send handfuls of C-notes to C-less? Thank you.

--
If we attend continually and promptly to the little that
we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how
little remains that we cannot do. -- Samuel Butler

On 2011-05-13, Karl Townsend wrote:
On Wed, 11 May 2011 05:33:52 -0700, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Tue, 10 May 2011 22:14:30 -0700 (PDT), Bob La Londe
wrote:

On May 10, 9:38*pm, "DoN. Nichols" wrote:

Sorry, that's a cash term from a certain shady trade.

Single = $1 bill
Fin = $5 bill
Sawbuck = $10 bill
Double = $20 bill
Half = $50 bill
Yard = $100 bill

* * * * O.K. *I was familiar with "Fin" and "Sawbuck", and "Single" is
fairly self-evident, but the others were unfamiliar. *Hmm ... from
Loan-sharking? *Betting?


Ummm.. something like that.

White slavery?

Must be a local tradition. The term around here for a 100 is a Ben or
a Benjamin.

And way back when, a $1 bill was a "Chlorophyll George". (Back
when Chlorophyll was the new "miracle ingredient" in things like ointment
for abrasions and such. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

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